Daughter unable to attend her graduation ceremony as it is full. Advice please

[mildlyfried]

My daughter has just finished a three year Bsc (hons) at a major University. She has been advised that she cannot attend her graduation ceremony as it is full and she is on a waiting list. All the other ceremonies are at capacity too. She has been told that if a place does not become available then she can either try to graduate in November without her friends or have her certificate posted to her for a £10 fee.

To say we are upset and disappointed is an understatement. Has anyone ever heard of this before? I did not think a University would do this and would make sure they had enough graduation days/dates for all their students. The students have paid tens of thousands in fees and slogged for three years to be denied the chance to get their degree in a ceremony with their family watching.

Is there anyone out there with any advice? maybe someone who works at a University? I'm tempted to go to the local paper and tell the story so other students know what to expect at this University. Students should be told when they are choosing the University that they are not guaranteed a graduation.

Thanks for reading

I’ve checked with a member of staff at the uni!
Slots are allocated for every student over several days. They need to respond to secure those slots within a strict time frame.

You certainly do need to confirm your attendance to a specific invite by a certain date.

I think your thread title is pretty disingenuous OP.

She is not being denied a graduation ceremony.

She simply has not been offered the ceremony date she wanted after not prioritising her application despite the University providing clear information that places were limited and allocated on a first come first served basis.

There’s a lot of frothing on this thread but the reality is that your daughter didn’t prioritise her application and ignored the risks of not doing so.

That said I hope she gets a place via the waiting list.

There is also nothing to stop you going on the day to meet her friends and celebrate with them after the ceremony and have some nice pictures with everyone.

Her post at 1.30?

Perhaps you should read the posts your talking about before you criticise others?

My dd is at Lancaster and what I haven't seen being mentioned yet is that graduation happens according to college and faculty, with different days allocated to each. So they can't just whack another day on the end.

OP were all your dd's friends the same college and faculty because if they weren't they were never going to get the same days?

Personally I only attended my degree graduation ceremony (many years ago) because I was the first in the family etc etc and my parents were very proud but it was so boring that I didn't bother with the one for my PhD.

That’s really fucking awful!
surelt you have 100 students on a course so graduation is just 100 places. It was for us, there was no race to apply you just graduated. It was a given. Good luck with raising it

Yes, they're handed out on stage, by the President, in the university that I work for.

I have NEVER heard of graduands having to apply for their own ticket - that's automatic, and they also get 2 guest tickets. We only ask to be told if you don't plan to attend the ceremony - so that we know how many extra tickets we have. The exams team advises the events team how many will be graduating per course and every single graduand is accommodated. We have roughly 7,000 graduating annually - the bulk of them in the Autumn, over a period of 3 weeks!

This is giving “I don’t celebrate my own birthday, therefore other adults who do celebrate their birthdays are unreasonable” vibes.

This happened one of DS’s friends and he just turned up on the day , hired a gown and did all the photos with friends . If I remember correctly he didn’t tell his parents until they turned up on the day with him .

Just to butt in to say I only used geography as a random example. I have no idea what course she does!

“many” 😂

Wtf. This is just awful. It’s a real milestone for them and you. I am so sorry OP.

She HAS been offered a graduation ceremony- just not the dates she wanted.

Theres a lot of frothing on this thread which fails to acknowledge the facts that the university made the protocol around places clear which the OP’s daughter did not act on.

You didn’t want to wear the PhD hat? I really wanted to wear the hat 🤣

All graduations are usually done with other subjects within the same faculty. But all geography students will graduate together.

It really is as simple as 100 geography students therefore the uni needs to ensure there's 100 spaces at graduation for geogrpahy students. They need to put on more ceremonies or find another venue if their venue doesnt accomodate the number it needs to. It doesnt matter if OPs dd was later than others, ultimately someone would have lost out. Do they do a first come first served with exams? Lectures? What else are they failing to provide their students?

That's appalling, there should be room for all students to graduate.

Indeed. Odd that you believe that “many” of the graduates will be off on holiday on graduation day. 😂

That’s for guests not graduands.

There is enough space for every grading to attend a ceremony. Tickets are limited for guests. If there are spare places in the hall they will be offered on a first come, first served basis.

It specifically says "Graduand spaces are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis"

Graduated from Lancaster in 1994. The Great Hall isnt the biggest.
I hired the cap and gown, couldn't afford the buffet and was horrified at the price of the photos so didn't bother.
I have pictures of me with my housemates and my parents visited and we all went for a Chinese.
The ceremony was long and the visiting royalty was double booked- I couldn't tell you who handed me the rolled up blank paper.
Not all my year attended in person but we were definitely all offered the opportunity.
If I were your dd I'd hire the gown, get lots of pictures of her with her friends and go out for a nice meal.
We all went to the Ashton memorial for unofficial photos.

Don't even remember mine it was so dull. Would not bother me in the slightest if this were my children book a nice lunch somewhere to celebrate far more memorable.

You didn’t want to wear the PhD hat? I really wanted to wear the hat

Damn, I missed out on a nice hat!?

All graduations are usually done with other subjects within the same faculty. But all geography students will graduate together.

No they won't at Lancaster unless they were all in the same college.

Summer Graduation Timetable - Lancaster University

I’m not frothing because of that, I’m frothing because what they do (did you really mean protocol?) is abominably shit. And save for a couple of obtuse posters, nearly everyone on this thread is agreed that there should be sufficient space for everyone to attend a graduation, if they want to, in the summer. Not having enough spaces (n.b. not talking about the guests, specifically just the students) is disgraceful, and fobbing them off into November is a poor excuse for an alternative. Any reasonable person can see that.

And it’s not about OP’s DD. The fact is they don’t have enough space and someone has to miss out*. That’s a terrible way for whomever it is to round of their undergraduate years.

*unless there has been some wild swing in behaviour and precedent data is unreliable, but the fact this approach is stated on their website indicates this is the norm and not an exception.

This is really shocking! I cant believe the university hasn't booked a venue big enough for all students to graduate together. This is some seriously bad planning.

When dd graduated this was the same situation: I think there were three dates and unfortunately dd did not get the same as her friends/coursemates, in spite of responding promptly.

In the past when universities were smaller, so were graduation ceremonies so everyone could be comfortably accommodated. Now the numbers graduating each year are huge . A nearby university came in for some stick as they hired a football stadium 🫣 . Not quite what people are imagining for a graduation ceremony…